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Pressure, Process, Performance

Pressure, Process, Performance

By: Nathan Pali
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About this listen

Pressure, Process, Performance is a leadership and sports podcast about how great coaches, teams, and leaders perform when the stakes are highest.

Every leader faces pressure. Every champion trusts a process. Every great organization is judged by performance.

This podcast studies elite coaching, high-performance leadership, and the systems behind sustained excellence. Each episode explores legendary coaches, championship teams, and iconic programs from across football, basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, and beyond, blending sports history, biography, and leadership analysis to uncover how leaders build systems that hold up under pressure.

You’ll learn:

  • How great coaches designed processes that outperform talent
  • How leaders handled pressure, expectations, and failure
  • How culture shaped consistency and accountability
  • How preparation created confidence in critical moments
  • How psychology influenced performance under stress
  • How systems produced repeatable success
  • How elite leadership works when everything is on the line

This isn’t a highlight show or a motivational podcast. It’s a story-driven guide to leadership under pressure, performance psychology, coaching philosophy, and understanding how the best leaders in history built processes that produced championship-level performance.

If you’re interested in leadership, sports leadership, high performance, coaching philosophy, team culture, organizational leadership, performance psychology, and learning how elite performance is built through preparation and process — this podcast is for you.

Pressure, Process, Performance Because pressure reveals leaders. Process builds them. Performance defines them.

© 2026 Pressure, Process, Performance All rights reserved.
Personal Development Personal Success
Episodes
  • America's Red Scares: Palmer & McCarthy
    Feb 19 2026

    In this episode, we explore the historical context of America's 'Red Scares,' examining the events of 1919 and 1950. We uncover how figures like A. Mitchell Palmer and Joseph McCarthy leveraged fear and suspicion to gain power, ultimately damaging institutions and individual lives.

    Chapters

    00:00 The 1919 Palmer Raids

    00:47 J. Edgar Hoover's Role

    04:33 McCarthyism in 1950

    11:49 Lessons from History

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    11 mins
  • Leadership Under Pressure: Nick Saban’s Hardest Call
    Jan 24 2026

    What happens when your toughest decision hurts your best people? A deep dive into leadership, loyalty, and execution at the highest level.

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    16 mins
  • Leadership Failure: Saddam's Paper Tiger Military
    Feb 18 2026

    In this episode, we analyze the catastrophic collapse of the Iraqi army in 1991, highlighting how Saddam Hussein's fear-based leadership led to a culture of misinformation and ultimately, military defeat. We also discuss the crucial role of psychological safety in command structures and how its absence can lead to organizational breakdown.

    Chapters

    00:00 Saddam's Fear-Based Leadership

    00:18 The 'Mother of All Battles' Mindset

    04:05 Fear-Based Command Structure

    06:43 Ground War and Leadership Paralysis

    09:49 The Highway of Death

    13:21 Lack of Mission Command

    17:05 Psychological Safety Checkpoints

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    11 mins
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